SU2C and Farrah Fawcett Foundation Announce Formation of Research Team Dedicated to HPV-Related Cancers

News Medical reported that two distinguished cancer research foundations recently formed a collaborative research team dedicated to human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers. The Farrah Fawcett Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), along with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), SU2C's scientific partner, announced the partnership this week at AACR's annual meeting. The team will focus on HPV cancer patients who either relapse after initial therapy or have limited therapeutic options available to them.

The research project, called "Therapeutic CD8 Vaccines Against Conserved E7 HPV Epitopes Identified by MS," will be led by Ellis L. Reinherz, MD, chief of the Laboratory of Immunobiology and co-director of the Cancer Vaccine Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Robert I. Haddad, MD, disease center leader for head and neck oncology at Dana-Farber. The two research foundations are backing the project with a $1.2 million three-year grant. Support for the translational research team is made possible with an additional gift from the HPV and Anal Cancer Foundation.

"It's estimated that more than 30,000 HPV-associated cancers occur each year in the United States alone," said Sherry Lansing, SU2C co-founder, founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, and chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation Board of Directors. "Research into new therapies that will benefit patients is urgently needed."

According to Reinherz, the research project, which begins in July of this year, will focus on vaccines to attack HPV cancer cells. Current HPV vaccines protect women and men who have yet not been exposed to HPV but offer no protection to those already exposed. Researchers already have identified at least one new therapeutic vaccine that will be used in a clinical trial as part of the research grant.

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